Decisions

Discussion

Discussed survey comments regarding bepress. It was noted that all survey respondents were overall satisfied with bepress services.

Respondents did raise concerns about how the sale to Elsevier could potentially impact services, costs, and policies.

Respondent comments regarding the sale will be added to the final report.

A “bepress Advisory Board” has been established. Stephanie is serving on the board. The board did not discuss the bepress sale or other issues regarding the business activities, but rather focused on the board being transparent, improving communication and user advocacy.

It was noted that bepress users connect with other users and the company through user groups, such as the Great Lakes User Group and through an active online Google Group.

CARLI – bepress client

CARLI contracted with bepress for repository services. As part of that agreement bepress set up “mini-bepress” sites for CARLI members. These mini sites did not include all features that full bepress sites offer. CARLI ended the contract due to budgetary issues.

Bepress Consortial IRs

In looking for examples of a bepress IR consortium, the Task Force identified reviewed the Galileo (University System of Georgia) bepress consortium site to determine if each institution maintains their own instance of Digital Commons. Based on this review, it is apparent that each library has their own instance of Digital Commons.

Survey

IR Survey Responses. Discussion took place regarding responses to several of the survey questions, including:

A review of the type of content statistics took place

Q. 12. Reasons for not implementing an IR

Funding and support staff were the two top reasons

Staff Support: A discussion took place regarding survey respondents’ understanding of the answer choices “Lack of staff support” and “Lack of technical expertise.” Task Force members questioned whether respondents considered if “lack of technical expertise” was a staff support issue.